Steam Turbine Locomotive - Disadvantages

Disadvantages

• High efficiency is ordinarily obtained only at high speed (though some Swedish and UK locomotives were designed and built to operate with an efficiency equal to or better than that of piston engines under customary operating conditions). Gas turbine locomotives had similar problems, together with a range of other difficulties.

• Peak efficiency can be reached only if the turbine exhausts into a near vacuum, generated by a surface condenser. These devices are heavy and cumbersome.

• Turbines can rotate in only one direction. A reverse turbine must also be fitted for a direct-drive steam turbine locomotive to be able to move backwards.